Very heavy seas. What are my options?

I'm nearing the end of my second patrol in U-53 (gwx 3), heading south down the East Coast of Britain. There's a huge storm outside and very heavy seas. I know the North Sea can be rough, but the waves are over the conning tower. I'm trying to play realistically, so I submerged to get out of the weather and spare my watch crew. The problem is, even after spending quite some time submerged, the weather hasn't let up. I've kept my speed to one-third to conserve battery, but I'm down to 25% none the less. I don't think that a U-boat would have been able to keep a watch crew on the bridge in this kind of weather, but I also can't stay submerged forever either. I know that my crew wont get blown overboard in the game, but if this were real life, what would my options be?

[FIREWALL]

Read " IRON COFFINS " Very realistic.

If you want arcade there's mods.


btw: I'm not trying to asshat you.

[Otto Heinzmeir]

I don't know about real life. You can get a lot more life out of your batteries running at about 1.8 knots. I usually run all night long (12 to14 hours Edit - I meant all day long as I surface at night) submerged around Scapa to avoid planes and my bat still reads 35. Your second patrol you may be alright along East coast. But later on you risk hitting mines there submerged.

Real life- Probably get better educated post from others in a bit. If batteries are dead the sub would have to recharge up top regardless of weather before snorkles and snorkles might not work in storms either. I suspect what they might have tried is surfacing and then go to Periscope depth every 30 minutes for a hydro check. Could also have raised the periscope just a foot and scanned around, though in heavy waves probably not much help. I really don't know though if the sea is over the conning tower. I have trouble admitting that I don't know so usually just BS

[A Very Super Market]

This is the C-in-C speaking.

- All U-boots are equipped with storm belts in the conning tower. Watch crews are expected to equip them properly and wait out any adverse weather conditions on the bridge. The Fatherland demands that all personnel do their duty to the fullest, which means enduring against all factors.

That is all

Also, BE MORE AGGRESSIVE

[Otto Heinzmeir]

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

This is the C-in-C speaking.

- All U-boots are equipped with storm belts in the conning tower. Watch crews are expected to equip them properly and wait out any adverse weather conditions on the bridge. The Fatherland demands that all personnel do their duty to the fullest, which means enduring against all factors.

That is all

Also, BE MORE AGGRESSIVE

There you go, so grow gills

[Pepe le Moko]

I think despite the storm belts it happened a few times that someone in the watch crew went overboard in heavy seas.

Also it seems that north of the Orkneys, the sea is always terrible!

But the problem is not so much the waves but the visibility. I am always afraid to stumble upon a destroyer at point blank range in the middle of a storm and then get rammed, or even an armed merchant.

I got sunk twice like that, so now i submerge as much as possible when the visibility is poor, especially at night to avoid these kind of encounters. It is particularly bad when the visibility is poor and you have heavy rain on top of it.

[Synthfg]

Be More Aggressive, If the weather is bad for you, it's just as bad for the enemy If the seas are that rough then it is an ideal time to go look in one of those harbours along the UK east cost, In weather like that, I once took out a Pyro Ammunition ship docked in Southend ?, if it had been RL the way she went up would have taken out half the town, Then Picked up a Tanker on my way out

[Fish40]

Did you ever watch Das Boot? Enough said.

[Kapt Z]

Sometimes those storms can last forever. Depends on your remaining fuels and torpedoes. If you have plenty of both, then wait it out or try traveling to another square. I've had storms last over a week and then suddenly you go topside and the sun is shining and the ocean is as calm as a pool.

But do watch out for those 'shadows'.....

[Jimbuna]

There are quite a few reports of men being washed overboard never to be seen again.

There is one report of U-106 on 23rd October 41 when the replacement watch opened the tower hatch in rough seas they found out that the entire previous tower watch of 4 men had been washed overboard.

If I were you I'd place a minimal number on watch whilst surfaced (2 IIRC)

[Oneshot/Onekill]

You need to watch Das Boot. The storm lasted for more than a week, and the waves looked to be 20-25ft high. and just to echo whats been said, U-boats were equipped with storm belts in the conning tower, and the deck gun. Crewmen used a carabiner to secure themselves. The major adverse effect in the game is the hit you take to crew fatiuge if you have it turned on. What you might try to do is submerge and run at 2-3kts untill batteries are at 50% then surface long enough to recharge, then repeat as necessary. This will lengthen your crews stamina.

[Sailor Steve]

Actually the storm in Das Boot lasted three weeks. Twenty-one days exactly. Took up two whole chapters in the book.

Also in the full-length extended version big Pilgrim's strap breaks and he is very nearly lost.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Even beyond the issue of the men washing overboard (which isn't possible in the game, thankfully), there is the issue of actually making any forward progress. The swells were so large that my props would come out of the water between waves. Then the next wave would come and completely drown the ship. It was actually showing me as being at a depth of 10 meters when the waves would hit. Each time that happened the game thought I was submerging, so the diesels would stop running! I'm sure this would have happened in real life as well as the water came over the air intake for the engines. My depth meter was fluctuating between 3 and 10 meters the entire time I was running surfaced.

I actually ended up just going flank speed on the surface for an hour or two to charge the batteries and try to get out of the storm. My speed, despite running at flank, was just a handful of knots. I stayed on the surface until my batteries were at 75%, then dove to get out of the weather again. I made my way towards the friendly coast and the next thing you know the storm is completely gone and the water is like glass. I didn't keep exact track of it, but the storm lasted all the way from Scapa Flow until very near Dunkirk. I'm guessing about 2 days in game time?

I needed to load my external torpedoes, since I had used all of my internals during patrol. But I was in way too exposed an area to do it right then, even though the weather was now clear with still water. So, I began making my way towards a friendly port (not too far from Dunkirk) where I could stop and bring in the externals. By the time I made it to a safe area, it was storming again. Luckily, it was just heavy rain and the waves weren't high enough to prevent me from bringing my torpedoes inside.

PS> I've seen Das Boot more times than I can count.

[Sailor Steve]

Don't waste fuel going flank speed. The engine recharging the batteries runs at flank anyway, and running the other one at that speed makes no difference. Also you won't go as fast since the one engine is disengaged while charging.

I do the same in bad weather, mainly because I keep the crew fatigue turned on and they do a lot better while submerged - just like real life.